20 years ago

Businesses and communities along the Sterling Highway are hoping an America’s Byway designation will help them get a leg-up on the competition for Alaska’s summer visitors. “People in tourism realize any edge that you can have can help somebody make up their mind,” said Derotha Ferraro, director of the Homer Chamber of Commerce. This state is too large to see in the typical one-week vacation many tourists allot for a visit. There needs to be something that makes someone choose the Kenai Peninsula over another region, she said. The Homer City Council concurred last Tuesday when it passed a resolution supporting the byway project.

— From the issue of June 3, 2004

30 years ago

Homer’s Port and Harbor Advisory Commission will start soon on a complete review of the city’s port and harbor rates. In preparation, Port and Harbor Director Dennis Erlandson is finishing a study of income versus expenditures and a comparison of Homer’s rates with those of every other harbor in the state. Whether you look at the cost of providing services or the rates charged in other harbors, Erlandson said, some Homer rates may need to rise. But it’s too early to get excited, he said.

— From the issue of June 2, 1994